GEB comes in the way of Essar Power sale
Vadodara: The Gujarat Electricity Board has put a spoke in the Essar group's plans to sell off Essar Power to Marathon Oil of the US. The board is unlikely to allow Essar Power to sell power to Essar Steel once the acquisition is over. Besides, since GEB is the largest customer of Essar Power, the group will have to secure a no-objection certificate from GEB for the proposed sale.

GEB says if Essar Power (post acquisition by Marathon) is allowed to sell power directly to Essar Steel, it will create a precedent and there will be demand from other independent power projects on similar lines.

GEB has a power purchase agreement for 300 MW of power with the 515-W capacity Essar Power. The rest of the power generated by the company is provided to Essar Steel.
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Chase says Essar will have funds end-1999
Mumbai: Chase, the trustee for Essar Steel's $250 million floating rate notes, says the company can expect cash from the sale of its non-core assets only towards the end of 1999. The company is in the process of selling its interests in power and minerals and getting a strategic investor in oil.

This will mean that Essar Steel will have to roll over the FRNs, as the cash to redeem the notes will not be available in the near future.

The company, on defaulting on the FRN, has asked the bondholders for 90 days' time to come up with a plan. Chase feels that the default will have only limited impact on Indian corporate paper as the default was on account of the specific problems faced by Essar Steel.
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GE Capital, Maruti to buy HDFC stake in JV
Mumbai: GE Capital and Maruti Udyog will together buy the Housing Development Finance Corporation's stake in the joint venture Maruti Countrywide. Deepak Parekh, HDFC chairman, said the entire 37 per cent of HDFC's share in Maruti Countrywide will be transferred between GE Capital and Maruti Udyog.

HDFC had declared its intention to exit from car finance joint ventures as it had launched its own plans for car and consumer finance activities. It had earlier divested part of its stake in Countrywide Consumer Financial Services, a joint venture with GE Capital.
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International Bestfoods gets takeover finance
Mumbai: International Bestfoods, owned by Bestfoods of the US, has secured takeover finance of Rs 32 crore from GE Capital Services India, Rabo India and UTI Bank for its proposed Rs 77-crore acquisition of the Captain Cook brand as well as the related manufacturing facilities of DCW Home Products.

The funding has been extended through a five-year syndicated loan, which will be repaid in four equal instalments. The loan is supported by an irrevocable and unconditional guarantee by Bestfoods. The parent has already remitted Rs 34 crore as interest-free advance against equity to International Bestfoods to part-finance the acquisition.

International Bestfoods was earlier known as the Corn Products Company.
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Wipro launches PCs, wants to be No 1
Bangalore: Wipro has announced the launch of a range of personal computers, servers and workstations, including a home PC brand, and reiterated its intention to be No 1 in the Indian market.

The products are Wipro Mentor corporate PCs, Wipro NetPower servers, Wipro Grafika engineering workstations and Wipro Voyager home PCs.

Launching the products, Arun Thiagarajan, vice chairman of Wipro, said the new products will meet every customer need and will enable the company to aim for the position of being India's No 1 PC company within the next two years. "To that extent, we have restructured the organisation to bring focus on the Wipro brand," he added.
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VSNL Seamless for JVs
Mumbai: VSNL Seamless Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Videsh Sanchar Nigam, is planning joint ventures with international firms in areas of internet and e-commerce.

The subsidiary is established to take over VSNL's non-telecom, value-added businesses. It will start operations in the next two months.

VSNL Seamless is planning to offer services such as web hosting and platforms for e-com. It has a capital of Rs 80 crore.
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Daewoo to export Matiz to Japan
Calcutta: Daewoo Motors India has plans to export its small car Matiz to Japan. The comapny's managing director S.G. Awasthi said the export of the Matiz to Japan reinforces its world class status and performance in the international market.

The company will export 10,000 units in the first year, and the level will be raised to 50,000 later. The cars will be sent to the company's Korean plant, and then from there to Japan.
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Siemens posts profit
Mumbai: Siemens Ltd has reported a net profit of Rs 1.8 crore for the third quarter ended 30 June 1999 against a loss of Rs 15 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The company has thus turned around and the loss for the nine-month period has been brought down Rs 3.8 crore from Rs 28.25 crore in the earlier period, and Rs 56 crore for the whole financial year of 1998.

The company has registered a turnover of Rs 207 crore in the third quarter (Rs 660 crore for the nine-month period) compared with Rs 175 crore in the corresponding period of last year.
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Hero Honda profit up 68%
New Delhi: The net profit of Hero Honda Motors for the first quarter of 1999-2000 has gone up by 68 per cent to Rs 38 crore. The company had posted Rs 23 crore profit in the same period last year.

The turnover of the company has gone up by 51 per cent to Rs 489 crore in the first quarter from Rs 324 crore in the corresponding period last year.
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ICICI picks up stake in Pantaloon
Mumbai: ICICI Venture Fund, the private equity fund, has picked up a 25 per cent stake in Pantaloon Retail. It has purchased 32.66 lakh shares through two of its funds, ICICI India Private Equity Fund and ICICI Indian Private Equity AMP Fund. It has also picked up 1.63 lakh shares via the private placement route.

Pantaloon Retail owns the Pantaloon chain of 30 retail stores in 12 locations in India.
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New air taxi service planned
Mumbai: A new air taxi service is in the offing. Mayekar Airways, promoted by the Mayekar family, part-owners of cinema house Plaza in Mumbai, is tying up with the grounded Span Aviation for the venture.

The service will use 12-seater aircraft, three of which will be operated to start with. Span Aviation had proposals to link all the district towns of Maharashtra, and had tied up with the State Industrial Investment Corporation of Maharashtra (SICOM) for funds. However, the company did not take off.
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Helix Biotech to seek US approval for 2 products
Bangalore: Helix Biotech, a Biocon group company manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients, is planning to apply to the US Federal Drug Administration for approval of its two products.

The company, which exports drugs to unregulated markets, either directly or through intermediaries in South America and South Asia, says once the approval from the Federal Drug Administration is received, its export turnover will rise to $10 million.

The company makes eight drugs and plans to add three more.
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Enron plans share swap
Houston: Enron Corporation will swap 62.27 million of its 82.27 million shares of Enron Oil and Gas Company for Enron Oil's Chinese and Indian operations, in a move that will make Enron Oil an independent company.

Enron Corporation said Enron Oil will pay $600 million in cash to one of its Indian units that will be transferred to Enron Corporation.
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Vodafone to acquire CommNet operations
London: Vodafone AirTouch, the largest mobile phone group of the world, will pay $764 million in cash for CommNet Cellular, a US cellular phone operator with networks covering much of the rural western America. It will also assume about $600 million of debt.

CommNet shareholders will get $31 per share in cash plus 8 per cent annual interest until the deal closes in four to five months.

CommNet is 73 per cent owned by Blackstone Capital Partners, a private equity fund.
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NTL in pact with Cable & Wireless to avoid Telewest
London: NTL, the Nasdaq-listed cable group, bidding for Cable & Wireless Communications' residential cable system, has signed an agreement with CWC's parent which prevents both companies from negotiating a deal with Telewest, a rival cable operator.

The agreement restricts Telewest from making any deal with CWC. It was signed after NTL threatened to negotiate a separate deal with Microsoft and Liberty Media, the US groups that control Telewest.        
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